Sleep When You're Dead New England IPA
Ballistic Beer Co.

Woo-woo! All aboard the Hype-Train™, next stop: Ballistic Sleep When You're Dead New England IPA. So the Sleep When You’re Dead is a great idea by Ballistic – essentially it boils down to hoppy beers having a limited shelf-life and Ballistic are brewing these limited release beers with a “dead by” date (with this beer being dead by 25/09/18 – 21 days from today!). I’ve even heard that Ballistic are buying back the expired beers from bottle shops after the dead by date – it’s a ballsy move but the upshot is that these beers are really in demand (hence my “All aboard the Hype-Train™” quip). Needless to say I do love a good NEIPA, and they’re definitely still flavour-of-the-month here in Australia, bring ‘em on I say!

Poured from a 375ml can into a nonic pint.

A: Murky AF yellow-mango body with a thin white head that dissipates rather quickly leaving nothing, much to my chagrin, oh well – the colour is great, could always be worse. 6/10.

S: Punchy cannabis and green hop character mingles with spicy and mango hints, hop-bomb indeed. This is one top-shelf aroma, plenty to like here, though I’m not getting any of the apple puree listed on the can – what I am getting is a fresh-as-the-day-it-was-brewed hop garden for the olfactory senses: Galaxy, Riwaka, Citra, Mosaic – fantastic mix of ANZUS hops, damn! 9/10.

T: Huh, not bad, not bad at all… not great either, it’s just a bit of a light flavour in the classic NEIPA vein: Cannabis/green hops, floral touches, muted spicy/mango notes, crisp apple centre (there it is!), dry cracker malt base, and a finish that is suitably dry and mildly bitter. It’s really just missing the kick the aroma hinted at – it’s almost like it needs something-something in the hops to switch it on. Still the balance is good, touch of gin-like spirit character in the background, but otherwise it’s a bit on the light side flavour-wise. 7/10.

M: Texture is alright, medium bodied, however carbonation is strangely lacking and nearly dead, maybe I got a bad can here? Who knows, this is odd from Ballistic. 6/10.

D: That’s the problem with the Hype-Train™ – sometimes the train derails a little and kills a few passengers. Could be a bad can, though it’s been a rare experience for me to have a bad can (bottles sure – they can go wrong quite easily). In any case I wasn’t blown away here, I was gently wafted on. 6/10.

Food match: Pizza beer here.